Re: Lost Time
by Mienai Ao
Summary: A story of reviving their eyes. The past has been changed, and a different ending has taken place.
1. Lost Time Regained

Shintaro opened his shoe locker and took replaced his normal shoes with his inside shoes. The door soon squeaked shut.

"Yo, Kisaragi-kun! Want to help us with homework?" a classmate asked. He forgot that person's name. No, to be precise, he just didn't care about it.

"No. I can't," he replied coldly.

"Kisaragi-kun, you never hang out with anyone after school. Don't tell me you have a curfew at this age?"

"No, I just have something else to do after school. See you tomorrow." Shintaro started walking away.

Was this really okay, distancing himself? He finally decided to go back to school, but he had yet to make any new friends.

He absently pulled out his phone from his bag. It was a normal phone that anybody could have. However, he couldn't accept that it was normal.

_"Master!"_

A ghost of a voice lingered in his mind. He could only hear it. He couldn't see it, argue with it, or even cry when it played its usual pranks. Even now, Ene had yet to return.

Pushing his thoughts in the back of his mind, Shintaro finally arrived at the hospital. He hated how familiar it was becoming to him.

He signed his name at the reception desk, where the nurse acknowledged him. As he walked to a room, the nurses and doctors who he passed nodded at him with pity in their eyes.

He wanted to look away. He wanted to go back home. Was that too hard to ask? Was it?

He stopped at the usual door and opened without knocking. What was the point? Inside, all he heard was the beeping of machinery.

Six beds, six sleeping people, six beeps. It never changed. Here was a place where everyone's time was stopped. He lingered at the door, neither closing it nor entering the room.

Kido, Kano, Seto, Mary, Momo and Hibiya. Was it an act of kindness that let them all be in the same room. Although, there was a certain teacher who was in a different room.

Shintaro tried to recall how things ended up like this. Konoha turned into someone else, and everyone was…..killed. Yes, they were killed. How was it that they were here, in a coma but alive. Why was he the only one okay?

_"Please help us. Please!" he screamed over the phone._

_"Calm down," said the operator. "What's wrong? Where are you?"_

_"I'm—" He stopped. Suddenly, the phone flew out of his hands and crashed into the wall._

_"Ah, that's no good. You can't call for help, Shintaro," said the person who was Konoha and at the same time wasn't Konoha._

_He felt his life leaving him. His vision blackened. He was faintly aware of Momo's shriek. _

_Is it my fault? he wondered. Everyone was dying again. Just like two years ago when those three died. Finally, Only Mary was left. It was like looking in a mirror. Being left alone was hard, wasn't it?_

_His eyes felt hot. The remaining spots of his vision was dyed red. He didn't know what happened after that._

_When he came to, a person was shaking him by the shoulders._

_"Hey, what happened here?" he asked._

_Shintaro couldn't understand for a moment. "I…don't know."_

_"You don't know?!"_

_"Stop! He's probably in shock! Don't make it worse!" another person warned._

_Shock? What was going on? He looked around. He was still in the same place, but there were many people with stretchers. On one, he could see Momo. _

_Why are we alive? It was a mystery he pondered as he was lifted up in a stretcher. But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't come up with an answer. _

_When he was released from the hospital, he was questioned again, and again he answered, "I don't know."_

_This repeated for several times, until the police gave up. It was presumed that he lost all of his memories of the incident, which wasn't too far from the truth. _

Since that day, he hadn't seen Ene or Konoha again. Nobody had woken up yet, even though several months had passed. It was a miracle already that they had survived. Another one couldn't come that easily.

Shintaro's hand left the door, and he finally stepped inside.

"Momo, if you don't wake up soon, you won't make it in time for school."

The usual words.

"Kano, it isn't like you to be this quiet."

It was how he got through his days.

"Kido, you have to make breakfast for everyone or else they might burn the kitchen."

It probably wasn't any better than shutting himself in.

"Mary, you're missing all your anime episodes and manga chapters."

Or any healthier.

"Seto, don't you have to go to your part-time job?"

What would they say if they say him like this?

"Hibiya, sleeping is good for a kid like you, but sleeping this long isn't."

Would they laugh?

He looked at the broken phone he set on a table months ago. "Ene, there's so many things to tease me with. Are you sure you don't want to come back?"

Or would they just smile and pat him on the back?

Finally, he looked out the window. "Konoha, can you hear me? Everyone's waiting for you, too. Hey…"

…can we still go back to those normal days?

The years passed. He became a doctor, which wasn't too hard considering his intelligence. He worked at the same hospital, and used his salary to pay for the life support of his six friends. Of course, he had help from his new friends. That's right, he got new friends, but they weren't as close as Shintaro was to the Mekakushi Dan.

He walked down the familiar hallways to get to that familiar room. A pair of scissors were in his hands.

"Oi, time for a haircut," he said to the group of sleeping adults as he opened the door. He never expected to see someone else in there.

"Shin…taro."

"Konoha?" It certainly was Konoha. He hadn't changed a bit, though he guessed it was natural since he was an android. At least, according to the notes by Kenjiro. "Or should I call you Haruka?"

The android gave a small smile.

Shintaro's vision was dyed red once again.

"Revival complete," he heard a familiar feminine voice say. Ayano?

"Take care of them, okay?" she said.

He couldn't see anything but red, and his eyes felt as if they were on fire.

He reached his hand forward, and met a wall. His eyes and vision returned to normal. He was in front of a closed door. Not just any closed door but the same closed door he saw everyday.

Shintaro looked at his sleeve. It was red instead of the white he was used to. He returned to the past?

He held up the pair of scissors in his left hand. Well, maybe not quite.

An uproar could be heard beyond the door. Impossible, right? It was definitely impossible, right?

He opened the door, and a pillow hit his face. There was silence before the pillow fell down with a thud. Shintaro stared at the sight with his mouth open like a fish's.

"Ah," said eight voices.

Shintaro's brow twitched. He survived years without him, had to go to school, paid so much money, and visited them everyday, and this was the welcome he gets. Forget about the fact that everyone's here and awake. He needed to pay them back for all the grief they caused him.

The scissors made an ominous snip. "Alright. Who wants a horrible haircut?"

The commotion that faded away so many years ago had suddenly invaded his life once again.

_A story of reviving their eyes._

* * *

What if Shintaro's eye power was the reviving eyes or something like that? This is something that I wrote and posted on tumblr when STR was released. I should have posted it here earlier. Ahahaha. Now on to post Invisible.

10/27/13 -  
Slight edit: Took away sentence "Forget the fact that Takane and Konoha were here." because it doesn't seem to fit in with later chapters.


	2. Lost Time Recovery

"Huh?" It was the only thing Shintaro could say. "You, are you serious?"

"Yeah. Something wrong?" asked the green-haired girl in front of him.

When Kido asked to speak to him alone, he expected a confession of some sort, but not this. Anything but this.

"Does everyone else know you're planning this?"

"No. You're the only one I've told."

"Why me?" was the obvious thought that went through his mind as he put his head in his hands. The former future doctor—as strange as that sounded—remembered that he kept a pair of scissors in a case in his pocket.

And so, he could only sigh. "Is there a reason for this?"

Kido was silent for a while. "…I think, I tried to hard to be like Onee-chan."

He raised an eyebrow but let her continue.

"I was worried our…'family' would break apart without her, so I tried to be like her. I even grew out my hair." The girl closed her eyes. "But now, I don't think it was ever necessary. So please," Her eyes opened, filled with resolve. "Cut my hair."

Shintaro silently flipped open the plain black case, revealing red barber scissors. He glanced back up at Kido.

"Alright. You want to cut it now, or…"

"Now is fine."

Though she said that, the two were in a different hospital room, with only a bed and a table.

I guess they can deal with a bit of a mess, he thought as he scratched his head.

"Just wait a minute, okay?"

He walked out to get a couple more supplies. When he went to ask for a bowl of water, the nurses just looked at him funny. When he explained it was to cut a persons hair, they were even more reluctant.

And to think, had it been a couple years later in a different future, there wouldn't have been any problems because he seemed to be cutting more hair than issuing prescription and the such. He almost missed that future.

Shintaro tuned his thoughts back on the present. If he wasn't going to get anything by asking, he'd just have to take matters into his own hands. Getting water wasn't too tough, As for the bowl, though…

He had to use Tupperware as a replacement.

This would have been much easier if Kido was not as adamant as to stay inside the plain hospital room that lacked a sink. Her reasons for doing so were a mystery to him.

After filling the Tupperware with tap water and sealing the lid, he proceeded back to where Kido was waiting. On the way, he was stopped by Kano.

"Yo, Shintaro-kun!" the cat-eyed boy greeted. "Have you seen Kido anywhere? I can;t seem to find here."

"I-I don't know." Shoot, he stuttered!

"Hmm?" Kano stared at him curiously. "Hey, why do you have water in a box?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. I just wanted to put a goldfish in it." What the heck was he saying? The raven-haired boy's mouth moved faster than his mind.

"I mean, there's a guest who brought a couple of goldfish with them and let me have one so I' going to get one so you can all see the fish swimming around and—gah!" He just had to bite his tongue. Maybe that was a good thing. Now he could stop talking.

"Oh, I see. Then go ahead and get that goldfish so we can name it Seto #3," said Kano with a smile.

"O-okay." It didn't matter if the younger boy was fooling him. He just wanted to get back to Kido.

Luckily, he didn't meet any other members of the Mekakushi Dan. They were probably resting in their rooms. They were still injured, after all. Even Kido was.

He stopped. And so was Kano. Kano should have been covered in bandages, but there was nothing. He was even wearing his regular clothes instead of the hospital gown. Shintaro was an idiot for not noticing this. He spun around on his heels and hurriedly ran back.

"Kano!" he called out as he looked around for the cat-eyed trickster.

"Yes? What is it?"

And he promptly forgot to turn and ran into a wall.

"There's a wall there," the blonde ever so kindly pointed out.

The NEET rubbed his reddening nose. "I can see that. What are you doing out here?!"

"Eeh? Is there something wrong about me being here?" he asked.

Shintaro grabbed his wrist. "Pulse is abnormal, clammy skin, low body temperature. You aren't fit to be walking around in your condition. I don't care how well you can disguise yourself. You're not fooling me anymore."

Kano gave a smug smile. "Shintaro-kun, you shouldn't pretend to be a doctor. That's my job."

"Your job is to rest, so your injuries can heal quickly," he retorted.

"They're already fine."

He was used to stubborn patients. He had dealt with those that tried their hardest to pretend that they were fine. Some pushed themselves to fulfill a promise or meet with someone. Every time, he would persuade them back to rest. Of course, there were some who didn't listen, and they paid the price. Shintaro didn't want to see that happen to Kano.

Because that meant coming face to face with a motionless figure on a hospital bed yet again.

"Why do you keep saying you're fine? You obviously aren't. You'll worry everyone like this! If you think acting tough like this is going to make you cool, you're completely wrong!"

The facade was dropped. Bandages appeared on the short boy's skin out of seemingly nowhere. His dark-colored clothes were exchanged with the white hospital gown. His complexion was also far from well. Even so, the boy still tried to smile as if it was nothing.

"Kano, you're only ruining yourself like this."

With his hand still gripping the said boy's wrist, Shintaro walked to where the Mekakushi Dan were staying. Surprisingly, Kano didn't try to resist, but a shaky grin was still plastered on his face.

"Why did you leave in the first place?" Shintaro asked, trying to make the other relax.

"You really expect me to stay cooped up in a hospital room?" Kano asked back.

A faint smile crossed Shintaro's face. "I guess not. But weren't you having a pillow fight one day?"

For the first time since returning to the past, he heard the boy chuckle. Through his hand, he could feel a steady pulse beating not too fast and not too slow.

"Well, I do admit that it was rather fun, though we were scolded by the doctors for that."

Ah yes. The appearance of a doctor was uncalled for because Shintaro really was about to give them bad haircuts. A pity.

"By the way, I still don't know what you're planning to do with that water," Kano commented, pointing at the Tupperware with his free hand.

Shintaro didn't know how he forgot about it when he had been holding it the entire time. "Crap." When he thought about how long a certain girl had been waiting for him, he paled.

"You'll have to go back without me!" He relinquished his hold on Kano's wrist. "Make sure you actually go back, okay?" he reminded.

"Kay~" replied the younger flippantly.

Shintaro was still skeptical but decided to trust him. He sped in Kido's direction.

Kano stared at his running figure with a hint of jealousy. "How nice, being able to run. How was Shintaro the only one to have light injuries?" he said to no one in particular.

Ahead of him, the older boy couldn't hear him. Shintaro was only hoping that he didn't make the girl wait too long.

* * *

This was supposed to be mainly about Kido, but then Kano invaded it. I have no control over the details of my stories. Ah, but I guess it turned out fine. I will say one thing. The word "Tupperware" is the bane of my existence for some reason.

And was it okay to put in a bit of humor in this. I always get paranoid about it.


	3. Lost Time Recollection

When Shintaro opened the door, his heart nearly stopped. Kido was sitting in a chair, her head slumped forward. Her hair drooped down and covered her face like curtains, but he was sure her eyes were closed.

She was sleeping. She was only sleeping. He knew that in his mind, but after seeing nothing but her sleeping face for so long, the boy began to panic. He dropped the water-filled Tupperware to the floor and ran up to her. He firmly shook her shoulders.

"Kido? Hey, Kido! Wake up!" He didn't know what he would do if she never woke up again. If the future would repeat once more…No, it couldn't happen! It must not happen again! "Kido!"

"Nn?" Her eyes opened.

Shintaro let go of her shoulders and dropped to his knees. "Thank goodness…" he sighed with the most relieved expression on his face.

"Shintaro, were you…crying?" Kido asked, now wide awake.

"Eh?" When he touched the area around his eye, he found it wet. Ah, how embarrassing. He quickly wiped away the tears with his sleeve. "It was just something in my eye."

"It wasn't like I was going to die in my sleep."

"Dying would have been better than not waking up," he mumbled under his breath as he relive the memories.

"Hmm?"

"No, it's…nothing." As the older boy looked away to avoid her skeptical eyes, he noticed the tupperware, fallen but intact. "Anyway, I should cut your hair now."

He stood up and picked the tupperware off the floor. Water sloshed inside, and Shintaro briefly thought that if he really did put in a goldfish, it would be dead by now. That would be a bad thing since he was going to have to wash her hair in it.

He wrapped the hospital sheets around her like a cape to prevent the hair from getting onto her clothes. "Alright. Lean your head back."

The girl quietly complied. The former future haircutting doctor soaked her hair in the tupperware. He recalled that something like this happened the first time he cut her hair. At that time, it wasn't a stretch to call her sleeping Rapunzel. Her hair was longer than herself. He wanted to cut it, but just like this time, the doctors and nurses discouraged the notion. Let it grow. Why waste their time on a patient who was never going to wake up?

"When are you going to wake up? Their eyes will never open again," a senior doctor told him.

Shintaro placed the tupperware on the floor and proceeded to combing her hair.

"Hey," Kido started in a soft voice, "what are you thinking about?"

He almost dropped the comb. "Nothing," he replied, a bit too coldly. "Just stay still."

He regretted it immediately. Unmoving, never saying a word. That was how it was for years. No, don't think about it, he told himself, shaking his head. If he concentrated on cutting her hair, he wouldn't have to think. It was how he survived. Always working and never allowing much time to dwell on his choices and his life.

After combing was cutting. The scissors that followed him into the past were taken out. Snip. Snip. green strands of hair littered the floor. He would clean that up later. Snip. Snip. He never did ask how short she wanted it to be. Oh well.

It took more than thirty minutes. He stared at his work and nodded. Short green hair that didn't quite reach the shoulders and trimmed bangs. She looked cute, but he kept the thought to himself.

"I'm done." Unfortunately, there wasn't a mirror nearby, so Kido patted the back of her head awkwardly. "It looks good on you."

Her hand froze in place. "When did you become a barber?"

Shintaro sat on the bed. He had to pay for life support, so he didn't really have the money to go to a hair salon. That was why he learned to cut his own hair. Of course, if he told her that, she wouldn't get a word.

"You had to pay life support?"

"Yes, that's the obvious reaction." Wait, wait. "Did I just say that out loud?" A simple nod was all it took for Shintaro to want to crawl into a hole and never come out.

"Please pretend I never said a thing." Because if he wanted to explain, the first thing he would say was, "I'm from the future."

"I mean, I would be paying for life support if you all stayed asleep. Wow, we're lucky that side of Konoha didn't do much to you." It was a hastily made excuse, but he hoped it would work.

"'Other side of Konoha'?" she repeated, clueless.

"Yeah. You know. He had black hair yellow eyes, and black clothes." It wasn't something she could forget easily. Even after so many years, the grin that person showed still haunted his dreams.

However, Kido still stared at him without any idea of what he was talking about. It was strange, so he tried a different approach.

"How did you all end up in a hospital?" He hoped his hunch was wrong.

"What are you talking about? We were hospitalized because—" She stopped. "Huh?"

He closed his eyes. It was right. "You don't remember."

Not about Konoha, how they were supposed to die, and everything else that happened that day.

* * *

I can't believe I updated this so quickly. Then again, it's a bit on the short side. Oh well.

That aside, time travel stories can be so confusing because of what to call the future. Former future? Future that already past? It doesn't make sense. Past is so simple. We just call it the past. Present is simple, too.

Leave me to ponder the strangeness of time travel-ish stories. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


End file.
